Three weeks

Three great weeks just beginning at Malmesbury Abbey. If you’re reading this on your i-Pad in a holiday cottage or on a Barbados beach, two things: one, we’re sorry that you’re missing so much; two, can I come next year?

We begin this Sunday by playing with the furniture. The Abbey will be stripped bare after the Sunday 4pm service, then on Monday morning we have soft play for parents and toddlers, after which Sandra Chin and her team move in to construct the Labyrinth and the art exhibition arrives. A labyrinth is a maze-like structure, but unlike a maze it has only one path that loops and turns backwards and forwards to the centre and then back out. The most famous remaining intact labyrinth is that found on the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France, built around 1200 AD. Pilgrims used to walk it as a symbolic journey to Jerusalem, with a view to finding Christ at the centre; a spiritual pilgrimage for those who could not afford to travel to Jerusalem. The labyrinth has become increasingly popular over the past 20 years and it can be used as a tool to inspire prayer, to illuminate the  scriptures and to meet with God. The Abbey Labyrinth, for adults and children, will tell the story of Jesus’ journey to the cross and at the same time it invites us to discover more about ourselves and about God. Don’t miss the late-night labyrinth next Wednesday.

From April 10th to April 20th we not only have inspirational worship on Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Day, but also a small festival of the creative and performing arts. Please pore over the brochure, come to absolutely everything, and invite your neighbours and friends. We particularly need everybody in the Abbey to liberate themselves from their sofa and come to Riding Lights on Maundy Thursday; this is part of us supporting mission and discipleship through the professional performing arts.

The Sunday after Easter (April 27th) is Vision Sunday at Malmesbury Abbey. In the morning we all come together to a combined 11am Holy Communion. This is  risky as somebody might be in your normal chair. As part of that service I’ll be interviewing various Abbey leaders about their vision for the year ahead; there will be activities for Junior Church during this. And after a picnic lunch together (please bring one!), at our Annual meeting at 1.30pm we take an hour to pray and get down to business and elect churchwardens and church council members for the year ahead. If you have a diary, please put all this in. Thanks.